Airing Out My Mother's Quilts

When I went back home to my parents' house on Sunday afternoon, my little sister and I sorted through a bunch of my mother's things. One of the final things we did was to take a quick look through her collection of quilts. She had two hope chests full of them; I only managed to look at the couple on top.

I brought back with me two very nice quilts, and on this day, it was time to air them out. The one on the left is a double wedding ring pattern. The one on the right, I'm not sure that one has a name. A double wedding ring quilt was something that was often given to a bride on her wedding day. I never really had a normal wedding day, and neither did my mother. So neither of us started out with such a quilt.

Mom ran off and eloped with Dad when he was 20 and she was 19; they went to Maryland to do it. As for myself, my husband and I got married at the justice of the peace; he was dying and needed my health insurance, and so we got married quickly. Later that afternoon, I took him to the hospital. Insurance coverage began the very day of our wedding. (Spoiler: he didn't die! In fact, I like to think that true love helped save his life.)

But back to the quilts. My little sister remembers that we bought the double wedding ring quilt for my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary, back in 2000. So, finally, my mother got her double wedding ring quilt. And now . . . somehow, now it is MINE.

I sprayed the quilts with fabric refresher because they are a bit musty from long storage. I ended up putting a drying rack in between so the middle parts could get some air. While I was spraying down the middle parts, the sun shone through the quilts, and it was so beautiful inside . . . it was like being surrounded by stained glass windows!

My mother started some quilts on her own but never finished them. In fact, I brought along home with me on a prior visit a blue and white (PSU colors!) quilt she started; I did have a thought that I might finish it in her honor. I have blue fleece in a matching shade that would make a soft underside for it. I may get to it; I just don't know when.

My grandmothers, Lillian Gertrude (Swartwood) Colyer [1895 - 1990], known as Grandma, and Carrie Violet (Hornberger) Carvell [1906 - 1991], known as Grammy, were famous for their quilt making when I was growing up. But their styles were quite different.

I recall a red and black and white child's quilt that Grammy Carvell made. It was flannel, I think, and had pandas on it. Oh, I wound that thing around me until it was threadbare. I have memories of that quilt on top of me as we watched Disney on Sunday night when I was little. Of course, it is long gone now.

Grandma Colyer's quilts were more utilitarian than fancy. She had a need to make sure every jot and tittle of leftover fabric was used. No scrap was too little or too plain or too strange to make a quilt out of. She made them in every color. Sometimes the pieces were quite small.

My grandmothers' feet have not walked the Earth in quite some years now. And many of the quilts they made us, we actually put on the beds and used until they were worn out. So I suspect that most of those are gone now. I can't be sure which ones belong to whom. But I still remember them all. I honor my mother, who collected these quilts, and I honor the women who made them.

Our soundtrack song is Kate Bush, with This Woman's Work. And here is a version of the same song from the film She's Having a Baby. I think it's one of Kate's very best.

Bonus: Here is a link to a National Park Service page that shows off a number of the most famous quilt patterns. Cool stuff here!